BlockBefore
Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Swampscott, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Swampscott town. It lies in ZIP code area 01907. It sits by Black Wills Cliff. The Survey maps it on the Lynn quadrangle.

Swampscott within Essex County

Then and now

1892 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 105 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Swampscott, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of Swampscott, surveyed 1892

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires nearby

60 since 2003

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 60 fires within 5 miles of Swampscott between 2003 and 2020, burning about 247 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 6 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Recreation and ceremony22
Smoking12
Arson/incendiarism6
Debris and open burning6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Equipment and vehicle use3
Fireworks3
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Natural1
Railroad operations and maintenance1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
27 September 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2017Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
17 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlPEABODY
1 September 2017Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 9,703 shown

Museums hold 9,703 specimens collected within 10 miles of Swampscott between 1800 and 1975: 4,518 Plantae, 2,989 Animalia, 937 Chromista, 579 Fungi, 435 Unrecorded, 234 Bacteria, 11 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A B. Proper, A H HIGGINSON, A. A. Eaton and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
A photograph of the species Rhodocollybia prolixa, not of this specimenRhodocollybia prolixa var. distorta (Fr.) Antonín, Halling & Noordel.1800R. B. MackintoshPeabody
Erysiphaceae1803A. B. Seymour
A photograph of the species Hamamelis L., not of this specimenHamamelis L.1816Boott, J.Andover Turnpike [=Northern Expressway?], 6 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Brasenia schreberi, not of this specimenBrasenia schreberi J.F.Gmel.1821Anonymous s.n. [1821]Wenham, Mass. Pleasant Pond.
A photograph of the species Amaranthus cannabinus, not of this specimenAmaranthus cannabinus (L.) Sauer1822not recorded
A photograph of the species Carex echinata, not of this specimenCarex echinata subsp. echinata1834Collector unspecifiedChelsea. [Inferred county from precise loc.]
A photograph of the species Desmarestia viridis, not of this specimenDesmarestia viridis (O.F.Müll.) J.V.Lamour.1841C. E. PeaseMarblehead
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia urceolata, not of this specimenPolysiphonia urceolata (Lightfoot ex Dillwyn) Greville1841F. S. CollinsRevere Beach, Revere, MA
A photograph of the species Carex caryophyllea, not of this specimenCarex caryophyllea Latourr.1847C. DeweySalem
A photograph of the species Carex muhlenbergii, not of this specimenCarex muhlenbergii Kunth ex Boott1847F. M. B. Boott
A photograph of the species Cladophora rupestris, not of this specimenCladophora rupestris (L.) Kütz.1848H. W. W. BaileyLittle Nahant, MA
A photograph of the species Trifolium medium, not of this specimenTrifolium medium L.1848W. Oakes

All 9,703 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

5 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Swampscott: 2 plants, 1 unknown, 1 producer, 1 occurrence. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Iron, Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, Mercury. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Lynn Eastern Smelt & Refin CorpGold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, MercuryPlant
Saugus DepositIronOccurrence
Swampscott PlantStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
Swampscott QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Swampscott QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms nearby

8 since 1995

The National Weather Service names Swampscott in 8 storm reports between 1995 and 2022: 7 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2010Thunderstorm WindSwampscott$50,000Trees and wires were downed on several streets in Marblehead and Swampscott, including Pickwick Road in Marblehead and Thomas and Banks Roads in Swampscott. One of the trees on Banks Road fell onto a garage. A tree on Thomas Road landed on a house causing extensive damage.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindSwampscott$20,000In Swampscott, a tree fell into a house. Street unspecified.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindSwampscott$5,000Trees on Humphrey Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2002Thunderstorm WindSwampscott$5,000no account filed
June 2008Thunderstorm WindSwampscott$4,000Large branches on Salem Street in Swampscott and wires on West Street in Marblehead were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindSwampscott$500Large branches were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2012HailSwampscott-no account filed
September 1995Thunderstorm WindSwampscott-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Essex County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
East Lynn0.5 miles43
Phillips Point1.3 miles43
Lynn1.7 miles43
Beach Bluff1.8 miles43
Clifton2.2 miles43
Wyoma2.4 miles43
Little Nahant2.5 miles43
Nahant3.1 miles43

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 613432. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.